


What One Becomes

by Calesvol



Series: The Way of Yin & Yang [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ancient History, Arranged Marriage, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Mokuton User Haruno Sakura, POV Multiple, Pre-Canon, Sage Haruno Sakura, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26528761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calesvol/pseuds/Calesvol
Summary: Before even the conflict between the Senju and Uchiha, one far older still existed. In but a few pockets of the world, those who still hold true to the ways of sages struggle to survive while those who follow ninjutsu see them as a threat. Among them, Sakura Haruno is the first Sage King to appear in centuries, the most gifted of the sages of the Inner Path. With her, they place their hope for survival. To others, she is a threat that must be stamped out at all costs.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Ootsutsuki Indra
Series: The Way of Yin & Yang [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751263
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	What One Becomes

* * *

Warning(s): T, none

* * *

The Southern Harbor, Land of Forests

To rise from death, from ashes, the calling hearkened of the Pure Lands was nothing short of a miracle. Three days it had been, they’d said. Three days of following the Coiled Path to its zenith, of wearing bones to dust and blood to rust, as the Sage Kings of eld so did unlike any that had come before them. For the crown node was the most difficult to ascend of the seven, one that only happened once in a lifetime among their ilk, perhaps even less. 

For the first time in hundreds of years, a Sage King had birthed anew and taken wing as a beacon of hope.

The singing bowls spoke of something, and she listened. Their carried, sustained notes echoed like aeons ago, whispers of her predecessors lingering in fumigating incense rich with sandalwood and sacred waters, a smoky shroud that bled the light of thousands of candles ensconced before a dais that raised her predecessor seated in a lotus position. The dark bronze refracted the candles’ illumination, distorted images dancing upon the aged surface patina had begun to claim in rivulets of turquoise. The King’s impassive features, the feminine measure of a woman frozen in time, bore heavily lidded eyes upon her face long faded from the paint that once colored them.

A mallet struck another bowl, a haunting dissonance that sent a low timbre throughout the temple, she a bright spot of pink in the raiment of her countrymen a world away. Short, bound hair framed peaceful features deep in meditation, lips stained a cherry pink held in a neutral line. She, too, sat in a lotus position, back straight as a waterfall as natural energies flowed like blood and made her veins glow with starry paths, an otherworldly sight for those whom had never beheld the Slug Sage before.

A higher note was elicited from another bronzed singing bowl, the resonance clear through the murky gloam as incense-addled air transported all who inhaled it to another realm, another place.

Jade eyes with a luminous sheen pierced through the darkness, her rib cage expanding with a final breath before those seated in lotus positions encompassing her knew: she was ready.

The wispy plumes stirred as she uncrossed her legs and rose, the whisper of rustling fabrics and tinkle of ornamentation delicately swaying was the only noise she made, bare feet soundless on the mirror-varnished floors. She padded noiselessly and hooded faces whispered their words, of blessings and speechless things the sage hadn’t caught before descending a stair to the world outside.

“Sakura, are you ready?”

It was by the beginning of the sunset that she emerged, long slants of titan sunlight sourced from the sunburst that crowned the watery horizon dyed her tube-shaped patadyong skirt from an earthy sage green to some hue akin to blood, her white barong tagalog shirt afire with its shade. A mass of people gathered upon every projected pier and dock unto the bay of the Southern Harbor, their breaths bated in anticipation.

By her side did the monk Tripitaka appear, the dark sepia of his complexion similarly warmed with a somber smile to meet that of his longtime student. The rings of his khakkhara staff jangled as they strode towards a formal barge festooned with colorful streamers, a warm, southerly wind carrying them to flutter animatedly.

“I think so,” Sakura answered once they walked upon the gangway leading to the flat bed of the craft, one that didn’t require the rigging of a normal one. It hadn’t been brought from storage in centuries, the sage distantly wondering if it was sturdy enough to bear them both to the far epicenter of the harbor a good mile away.

“Mm, I can’t even imagine it myself. To be the first sage to reach Perfect Sage Mode in centuries since the Demon’s coming is quite an accomplishment, Sakura-chātrā,” Tripitaka quipped as he cast a sustainable water jutsu that would drift the barge far out to sea, a sea of faces watching them in bated breaths and anticipation.

“I’m not sure if I can sustain it for very long. Even with the Sengen Seal, I can only manage several minutes at most,” Sakura mused as the craft lurched once, her feet steady despite it. The calm plane of the sea lapped against the craft’s hull, deceptively so when her galloping heart alone could rock it, surely.

“Have faith in yourself, Sakura-chātrā. You’re only demonstrating one or two sage arts, nothing more. Not fighting a battle or anything of the like.” The monk’s hand came to squeeze Sakura’s shoulder that elicited a wry, crooked smile from the woman.

Nerves gripped her throat and tongue as electricity crackled, the day of meditation spent filling her Sengen Seal reminding how gelatinous her legs felt standing after what felt like an eternity. The inexorable lull of the current couldn’t disturb thin ice, but the deliberation of its speed frazzled the sage’s nerves more than they should've. Even if the breeze cooled her flushed face, little could prepare her for what was to come.

And it did, sooner than it should as the barge crept to a complete halt, minuscule ripples treading the water before it stopped like a heartbeat.

Coldness and clammy hands seemed the brunt of her person as Sakura broke into a faint sweat, stomach tossing her gut with the restlessness of a churning sea. The sun smoldered in its restful inferno, solar tendrils seeping vividly into clouds so hotly she wondered if they scorched. It was a great, heavenly eye watching her with a god’s scrutiny, doing nothing to calm her nerves.

“You can do this,” Tripitaka murmured with a final pat to her back, Sakura unable to look over her shoulder for fear that his kind face would unnerve in his gentility, to excuse any flagging of her resolve.

With a resolved breath did Sakura take the first step on to the cool waters, rippling at her feet as she walked with some steely grace despite her trepidation, as easily as if it were some straight path home. She didn’t know how long or how far she followed the path ignited by the sun, undulant at her feet until she stopped, breathless and strung taut but aware that it was this moment, or none at all.

It were as though the world held its breath, suddenly aware of everything and nothing. Not the baying of seagulls nor the tide and pull of the ever moving sea. By a hand held to the level of her sternum, Sakura clenched all but her fore- and index fingers in one of the most common hand seals of them all.

_Sengen Seal: Release_

All of reality seemed to crowd her as the Sengen Seal released, a bright spot of jade on her breast that flashed with bands of pulsing, radiant gold that cascaded in ribbons moving in unison of the other until it touched every pore, every bundle of nerves and layer of flesh. A sublimating solar fire that devoured her in its power, its heavenly fury. For this was the transfiguration of becoming she’d touched on the cold threshold of death.

An almighty, quenched hiss of ferrous metal cooled in fresh waters brought with it a torrential eruption of steam, billowing clouds suffused as if the heavens and sea had traded. From afar, an unspeakable rift of power had opened. With bated breaths and anxious waiting did even Tripitaka freeze upon the barge, the craft pitching on the mild waves that seem to roil intensely as the air thickened with a nameless sensation none could name. As if his soul solidified into stone.

A silhouette stood alone among the clouds of mist, suspended in fog alike until it became clearer who it was who was so utterly statuesque, a font of living power.

Sakura felt a sense of humanity seep back to where it had been temporarily forgotten, petal-pink lips slightly ajar as she adjusted to the searing heat of this unlocked tier, the power of heaven flooding her psyche utterly and absolutely.

Perfect Sage Mode had only been attained a few times before, for its guaranteed entry was death with a harrowed journey required to seek life once more. For three days Sakura had fought nonstop in the Shikkotsu Underground, that place devoid of a sky though plunged in eternal night. No words described its beauty, its wild radiance. And perhaps it didn’t need to.

Sengen Sage Mode was what came in the after, her very figure changed. Swathed in a satiny silk kimono loose with a pleated silk skirt with a slight train did a slip expose the creamy hue of her leg, light moving through the fabric as she did, a lustrous, velvety maroon. Above the cloudy obi of embroidered silk and its thick, ropy sash of light rose did the open front of the kimono avail the starlit lines of the Sengen Seal trailing star-fire across her body that lifted to encircle the Yin Seal that shaped to concentric rings on her brow. The iridescent topmost part of the kimono boasted voluminous sleeves that rested at her flanks like furled wings, bare cleavage of her ample bosom still regaining breath.

Barely could the wind rustle her hair that had grown past her buttocks in this state, crowned by a small boughs of a blooming cherry blossom tree of her namesake wherein the thick tail was sheathed by roots that coiled it in place and sprayed at its very end. She very much was the embodiment of Konohanasakuya-hime herself, of volcanoes and cherry blossoms and fleeting beauty.

Staggered by this transformation, of the pinnacle of sagedom coursing through her as a divine conduit, Sakura knew it was the time to act before she grew too exhausted to maintain Sengen Sage Mode. Hands weaving fluidly, her first senjutsu was cast.

_Igneous Release: Shrine of Kirishima_

Tectonic plates shifted and a mighty, atmospheric maunder shook the very foundations of the earth as it quaked with an unleashing of awesome power. Sakura’s flesh became instantly broiled with hot perspiration, dribbling her skin in warm, uncomfortable rivulets as the sage chakra required staggered her. But, she stood adamant despite it as the sea half a mile away broke and sputtered with a column of virulent steam that hissed upon touching the cooler surface. Its vibrato elicited tremors from the very waves as a heavy announcement of a volcano itself shuddered to conception on the day of its birth.

The volcano blew its top violently, smoking pillars belching black smog into the pristine skies as cinders and ashes drifting on the calm breezes that had made for such a still morning were driven into this mouth of chaos, of creation. Yet, as the moments wore on, the scorched land cut by runnels of magma spilling into the ocean to steam chaotically stilled as it reached its pinnacle, a massive island by anyone’s reckoning that Sakura had created from nothingness.

As the people on the shoreline were stolen of their breath, it was then that Sakura cast another senjutsu, possibly the last she was capable of in the nascence of this new sage mode.

_Blossom Release: The Symbol of Delicate Earthly Life_

Roaring applause sounded from the harbor and those thousands congregated, raucous cheers breaking the stunned silence that had reigned so absolutely as noticeable swaths of greenery suddenly manifested on those bleak volcanic shores. Trees and efflorescent flora bloomed with a visible riot of color, bright and cheerful, an omen of the triumph Sakura had achieved.

From the unreal energy expended, Sakura collapsed to her knees as her sage mode withered away with her, unable to maintain it. Yet, how beautifully it vanished as it was whisked away by the ushering wind that carried its vestiges as pale pink cherry blossom petals.

“Sakura-chātrā!” Tripitaka shouted as he bolted on to the waves and caught Sakura by the shoulder before she could fall into the ocean, utterly exhausted of all her chakra. The sage blinked exhaustively at the monk who could barely contain his pride. He gazed on her like a proud brother, for though they were teacher and student just years apart, nothing could erase how much they were like family to one another. “You performed beautifully, beyond all expectation. I don’t think you have any idea how much hope you’ve brought to the Inner Path. You’re the Sage King of a new age.”

As Tripitaka carefully maneuvered Sakura on his back to be piggybacked to the barge where he’d gently lay her prone form on its wooden floor, the din of erupting cheer washing over her in warming, validating waves that made all her years of training feel so worth it. At twenty-five years old, Sakura Haruno of the Namekujira would be the hope for her brutally oppressed people. Such a reality brought joy to her heart despite how far she had to go before she could fully master Sengen Sage Mode.

_Sengen-hime! Sengen-hime! Sengen-hime!_

The faraway voices of her kith and kin ashore drifted away on the wind, filtering through her mind as her eyelids became impossibly heavy and the light of a new dawn faded from sight.

Sakura would be their hope, and she would save them from the perdition they’d been damned within for so long.

* * *

Wa, Empire of Redaku

Many years had passed, it seemed, since his favored and beloved brother had fled from the stage of the world following the death of their venerable father, the Sage of Six Paths. A man of his middling thirties, Indra was no stripling who had once studied his father’s illuminated texts in such heartfelt awe and wonder. He was the scion of a new age, pioneer of the arts of ninjutsu and inheritor of a legacy both wondrous and terrible.

The Outer Path, they’d called it. _Damned_ it. In the generations ago of his grandmother, the Rabbit Goddess Kaguya, once reigned over the earth and had called it her own. Where once she had been coveted as a weapon by the Land of That, in the Land of Ancestors did the succor of her lord husband see her abandon them when a girl like a daughter to her, Aino, perished in the careless actions of greedy men. She, goddess made flesh, had annihilated them in the most brutal way she could and made the world fall prey to her nightmare.

At least, that was the story Indra had heard from the soft, flickering years of boyhood.

And from there, his sagely father had said, Kaguya became a demon that ruled Tenji’s empire with fists of iron that swore revenge on all who crossed or defied her. And of them, none defied like the Inner Path had. Dissidents against Ninshū, sham revolutionaries who saw what she’d done as some great evil.

Indra felt a great portent weigh him like stones, unease filling his heart that prompted the Ōtsutsuki to abandon his administrative work to a presiding Minister of the Interior, the man bowed reverently as the emperor left in a haste, no word as to his itinerary that filled his restless thoughts.

Of all places within the Empire of Redaku, the Astronomy Research Institute was by far the most wondrous. It was one of the crown jewels of the Summer Palace’s many wings, the massive foyer lain with floors of marble and watched by the vigil of a colonnade of jade that proceeded towards the intricately complex locking mechanism that dominated the enormous brass doors, shined a polished bronze in the light of several warm, flaming braziers. Indra simply rapped his knuckles once, a burst of chakra imbued within that activated the mechanism of its own accord.

Gold pulleys and gears ticked like clockwork as several tiers of locks were riddled through, bronze arms huffing and pulling before the clangor of its busied work ceased and the doors of the Astronomy lab were unveiled to him.

Within, the domed, vaulted ceiling was domineered by an infinitely complex planetarium that recorded the movements of the stars, constellations drifting through on curved arms that moved intricately withal in clockwork time. Massive rings that housed models of the planets whirred and spun in complex arrays, mimicking the movement of the stars. The warmly lit space was rendered temporarily cold despite the recessed rooms ablaze with light that encompassed the nucleus of the institute.

Though his own thoughts did a quirk of lips occur upon sighting the wizened old astronomer clumsily untangle himself from an observation platform he’d steered with its boggling machinery to navigate through the massive planetarium, even if Indra wasn’t one to prod Tataru like that.

He’d been a close friend of his father and a friend of the family, after all.

“Janmarū-sensei, is now a bad time?” Indra broached with an amused lilt in his voice, some shadow of old, boyish mirth present.

The man, bowed with age, finally came to Indra’s fore, bushy white hair tied back despite the voluminous beard that cascaded his front. “Your Majesty, I wouldn’t think of such a thing! Please, tell me what ails you.”

Indra’s brief amusement fell into an inscrutable mask, but the astronomer knew better. “It’s those Inner Path dissidents,” he hissed softly, to which Tataru nodded in understanding. “They keep stirring rebellion among their countrymen, as if the sages can return them to some old, obsolete way of life. I know, my grandmother started a slaughter when they dared to defy her, especially when my Lord Father and Uncle trained on Myōbokuzan to learn Six Paths Senjutsu against her… They don’t understand that this isn’t a war we wish to keep fighting! I need some sign of how to move forward with all these renewed skirmishes I’ve been hearing of at our borders.”

Tataru’s lips thinned thoughtfully, but Indra didn’t need to say more for him to understand. Shuffling towards a desk stacked with myriad celestial instruments and rolls of parchment, the astronomer delicately tugged one free where a fine astrolabe perched atop as a paper weight, careful not to disturb it. Ruffling the thin parchment free of dust that might have accrued, Tataru proffered it to Indra.

“Unfortunately, I’m no fortune teller like your uncle sometimes was, but I took highly calculated observations of the stars and believe this prediction to be quite accurate, my lord. Perhaps you can divine some sense from all this, hm?”

Indra smiled gratefully, appreciative of the astronomer’s level of insight as always. After all, with the Book of Changes, surely he could—

“My lord, my lord!” The frantic cries of a breathless courier shattered the old camaraderie between him and the astronomer, only to be mobbed by something high and pinched that throbbed against Indra’s senses. The pair turned towards the man who hurled himself desperately at the Ōtsutsuki’s feet.

“T-There’s been an incident at the Southern Harbor in the Land of Forests! Our spies, they—”

At once, the contentment that might have otherwise ruled Indra’s mien faded in favor of his hot temper flaring, Sharingan aroused in his eyes in reaction, in anticipation, of what was to be relayed. Was their king rallying for a true declaration of war?

“Calm yourself, and tell me what you saw,” Indra snapped at the courier who winced.

“A sage of the Inner Path mastered Perfect Sage Mode and raised an island from the ocean, m’lord.”

The second those words were uttered, Indra’s hands clenched into fists so tense his knuckles blanched and the tension quaked them. He grit his teeth so tightly that his temples throbbed.

“Incredible, in all my years… The first Sage King in centuries, conceived in this exact moment,” Tataru marveled aloud, serving only to spur Indra from his stewing fury that rooted him in place.

_Aha, this is when the fun begins, doesn’t it?_

“You! Send for the Minister of War and my small council. We must have a meeting at once. Go!”

The man scrambled breathlessly to his feet, bolting down the hall without another word, footfalls resonating until Indra himself brusquely heaved open the observatory’s doors and stormed down the hall, a tempest on his heels that made even the old astronomer shiver at the ominous tidings to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, there's a lot of information to get through here!
> 
> To begin, like Warrior, Father, Sage, this seeks to establish worldbuilding as it exists in my Way of Yin & Yang AU verse. But unlike WFS, this takes place in the ancient era long before the Founders', even if the endgame of fleshing out events is similar with Sakura as the main, POV character.
> 
> Firstly, you're probably confused by what Perfect Sage Mode is. To put it simply, it's my headcanon that sages are capable of achieving more than one sage mode that can come in two different ways, but take similar routes. It's based on Naruto's own wherein he possessed not one, but 3 different sage modes that culminate together into one. With Naruto, he possessed Toad Sage Mode as his base, Tailed Beast Sage Mode as the rung above, and Six Paths Sage Mode above even that. ([They can both be read about here.](https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Sage_Mode#Tailed_Beast_Sage_Mode)) Following that, when Madara extracted Kurama from him, Naruto died and met with Hagoromo and Sasuke in a limbo realm who bestowed them his gifts, Naruto's being Six Paths Sage Mode. Yet, [as seen here](https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c580dc2d754d8c98a979b3d65d8731c8.webp), Six Paths Sage Mode doesn't invoke the cloak or anything of the like. Remember, Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode looks [like this](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/naruto/images/2/21/Naruto%27s_Kurama_Mode.png/revision/latest?cb=20160206204708). To further reinforce this not being from Six Paths Sage Mode, Minato's Tailed Beast Mode [looks like this](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fF4Sx.png), especially when juxtaposed to Naruto's who looks identical. Perfect Sage Mode, meanwhile, is a [culmination of Toad, Tailed Beast, and Six Paths Sage Modes](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6f4a44c2-55c9-4f0b-b657-8b6ac84d44b6/d8mbbxc-6cefe24f-3776-42fd-8a2f-b1836e115aee.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNmY0YTQ0YzItNTVjOS00ZjBiLWI2NTctOGI2YWM4NGQ0NGI2XC9kOG1iYnhjLTZjZWZlMjRmLTM3NzYtNDJmZC04YTJmLWIxODM2ZTExNWFlZS5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.mNjo9RsSWY9BxYbKdacnMm_HdZuyaA-NjaoP3fbRyig) earned when the sage dies and comes back to life.
> 
> Sakura's however, differs in that it takes a similar but branching approach. She still has to die and make it back, but instead of getting a Hagoromo-ex-machina power up, she fills the final node of something I call the Coiled Path, which is a complementary chakra system (compared to the Eight Gates) for sage chakra that is formed the more a sage masters senjutsu (that you can read about in full, [here](https://shikkotsunin.tumblr.com/post/623277582288388096/headcanon)).
> 
> Sakura's Sengen Sage Mode looks like the chapter illustration above and is what I envision a final power-up of the like Sasuke and Naruto received might have looked like. It's called Sengen Sage Mode after Konohanasakuya-hime whom is a big motif for it and Sakura in this AU verse.
> 
> Otherwise? The reason why Sakura has a Yin Seal and not a Byakugō will be explained in the coming chapters, as will the Sengen Seal and some others. Like WFS, the power ups in this fic are basically spoilers as to what Sakura achieves in Maiden, Mother, Crone. But, for anyone completely new, I'll remember to explain things as they crop up!
> 
> As for the little things, [Land of Redaku](https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Tataru_Janmar%C5%AB'>Tataru</a>,%20the%20<a%20href=), among others are all canon and have big parts to play in the upcoming story.


End file.
